Episode 10- Mystical Forest

Awaiting their quest to hunt dragons, the team of seven gathered at the magical forest that was over five hundred meters away from the kingdom. Eerie-looking trees grew as far as the human eye could see, over the dans, valleys, and mountains. The vast space was big enough to hold thousands of dragons and other Mystical creatures.

The giant forest was known as the Mystical Forest, and the forest was separated into three main areas.

First came the Fairies Central, where the fairies stay in their section of the forest and welcome visitors. They were the protectors of the forest, but they were low-ranking spirits so the only thing they could do at their current strength. The higher spirits allowed some of the fairies to stay in the human world, but they had to stay away from bad humans. And they could tell who was good or bad because that was something every being from the spirit and elf race could do.

Next came the Flaming Forest, this area was densely packed with phoenixes, the place was covered in a barrier of flames that would erase anyone from existence, including the soul. These flames were called phoenix fire, one of the strongest flames after Nora Egil and Dark Sun. The phoenix was a race that only allowed the worthy to pass through to get to the other side.

Finally, the dragon nest was filled with all kinds of dragons, but most of the dragons were mindless beasts that would destroy anything in their path. Although the human world only has the supreme dragon race that could talk in the world, they created their own section in the part of the human world to separate them from the others. Of course, Sara allowed the supreme dragons to create their own place in the human world because she did not really care.

Naturally, the fear of dragons was something that could not be scoffed at because of their insane evolution rate. Dragons have a higher chance to rank up mid-battle, that was the reason they were considered dangerous. In an instant, A dragon that was an A-rank dragon would be upgraded to an S-rank or become even higher than that. Most times dragons fly in pacts.

Nonetheless—

"It looks like we have finally arrived at the Mystical Forest… well, should we teleport to the place where the dragons are at—...."

"Nope, we are not going to do that," Tenka called out, "We don't have a time limit on how long we are going to have to complete this quest so we might as well have some fun while we are here, and if I'm not wrong, we should have a break from classes again."

Alice stepped up smiling brightly, "She is right about that uncle. If we are going to be in the Mystical Forest, we should at least have fun while we are here!"

"That's the whole point of going on an adventure. After all, we are hunting a dragon for our first time together, so we could at least make the best of this quest together."

Those words came from the last hero, Lucia Koemiji, and she wanted to make the best of the quest with her friends.

Illayaka and Illya looked on as the group of students were talking to each other. They were kids so they didn't want to butt into their conversation, but they were ready to go on the adventure to hunt the dragon. They didn't care if they made some stops. However, the dragon was their main goal.

"Papa, can we start this quest already… I want to explore the forest together with everyone." Illayaka's eyes flashed for a second, her Void Eyes lit up scanning the magic that was in the area.

Shito looked at his daughters, picking them up off of the ground, gently placing them on the shoulders, "Well since you are ready to go fight the dragon… we shouldn't keep standing here wasting time."

"Let's go into the forest, Papa!" the twins shouted in unison.

"Yes, we are going on the right now." Shito remarked before looking at the students, standing beside them, "...Are you all ready to start this adventure?"

The four girls turned their heads toward each other and smiled brightly, "We are ready to go explore the forest, so let's get this test started."

"Since everyone is ready to go then, what are we waiting around here for than… Let's be on our way."

With that, the seven adventurers walked inside the forest. The forest didn't really have too much defense because the fairies allowed adventures to come through and kill the dragons that got out of control. The fairies are the people that registered the quest for them. The forest was protected from any type of harm because of Sara's magic barrier. While it did no harm to the people, it protected the fairies. That is because Sara wanted to keep a good relationship with the spirits and elves.

They continued walking through the forest. Little specks of light were floating through the forest, lighting the forest in a translucent white light that wasn't too bright but wasn't too dark. The dim lights from the forest were bright enough for them to see what was in the forest. There were beautiful plants that covered the grounds, plants that looked otherworldly.

As the group was walking, Shito looked back at the girls, "This is the section of the forest where the fairies live. All fairies keep the non-lethal beast in their parts of the forest since the other parts are too dangerous for the other animals to live."

"How do you know that this is the part of the forest where the fairies live, Uncle…?"

Those were the words that came from his niece, Alice Mahinu. Even though she wasn't given the last name yet, Sara was planning to give her the last name sooner or later.

"You can feel how gentle and pleasant the feeling of the area is, look at all of the animals walking around the forest. The trees that surround the forest are also lighting up. This feeling is the same feeling that fairies give off when you meet them."

"He is right about that," Lucia said, agreeing to everything he just said, "We are going to meet the gentlest race we could ever meet. They hate fighting so the request we received was probably what the spirits wanted us to do for them."

"...You two know so much, are you going to tell me how you received so much knowledge? After all, fairies live in seclusion so we shouldn't really know too much about them because the textbooks don't tell us all that information, and adding on to that, you talk like you have met fairies before." Lilith pointed out. The other started to notice everything that she said was true and shifted the gazes toward Lucia and Shito.

Damn, I think we spoke too much, because of my rocky life, I started talking from experience. Shito and Lucia thought to themselves. Both of them went throw a lot of things in their life, so they had the chance to meet spirits in their time of exploring the world. But… they didn't know how they were going to explain themselves.

But even without knowing how to explain himself, Shito's face still hasn't changed in the slightest. And he looked at the girls with a straight face, opening his mouth.

"My sister told me about fairies when I was a kid. She said she met fairies and loved the gentle feeling they give off."

Without any hesitation, he lied to the others. Of course, it was a terrible thing to lie to your friends, but the realm of the void was something they couldn't know about for the moment.

Wow… Papa can sure lie with a straight face. He knows that wasn't something his sister told him. After all, he was the king of the realm of the void realm. Illayaka thought to herself.

Anyone who didn't hold the knowledge that Illayaka had would think he was telling the truth, but for Illayaka she knew that he came from the void realm. The void realm housed beings that were stronger than most of the beings in the world they were currently in… not the being was stronger than almost all the beings that existed throughout the countless worlds that existed.

Tenka sighed, believing every word that came out of his mouth. "What about you Lucia… how do you know about the fairies?" she asked.

"Eh, um, I learned it from my fat—..."

"...But you don't have no father! No, you don't even know who your real father is because he left you at the orphanage!" Lilith instantly interpreted her when she was about to say, Father. They had been together for a while, so she knew that she had no family. Lilith's family lived near the orphanage where Lucia lived so she knew she was lying.

—-Shit… I thought I could get away with that one… I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for this meddling kid…

Lucia looked up at the girls and sighed before pointing at Shito, "He told me about the fairies when we were fighting in the tournament a couple of weeks ago."

"Ah, I remember telling her that back then… you should've just told them that, so you didn't have to lie." Shito added, "Well, we need to drop this conversation for right now because we are coming in front of the passageway to the fairies' city."

Illya activated her Void Eyes and stared at the passageway, noticing the barrier that was placed around the passageway, "Father there is a barrier placed around the passageway… Are you sure that we should go through this way?"

"They want to test the adventurers that are going to be fighting the dragons, so it's only natural that an anti-magic barrier was placed around the passageway…"

After saying those words, Shito walked straight through the anti-magic barrier. Of course, the barrier was supposed to stop people from walking through the barrier, but it collapsed as soon as he walked into the barrier.

"Well, would you look at that… even an anti-magic barrier, couldn't stop him from reaching the destination that he wants to reach," Lucia said, walking behind Shito, "Hurry up you three, he is not going to wait for us, because his daughters look like they enjoy riding on their father's shoulder."

Hearing her say that, the three bewildered girls began walking behind the two that were walking in front of them.

"We are coming…" said the three girls.